Local News

US Rep. Gabbard Calls for Local VA Head's Firing

U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard is calling for the director of Veterans Affairs in Hawaii to be fired. Gabbard said Wayne Pfeffer, director of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System, has been "dishonest with Hawaii's congressional delegation and the public." In her letter to Acting Secretary of Affairs Sloan Gibson, Gabbard said Pfeffer told Hawaii staff members that the current wait time in Hawaii for new patients at the VA was around 30 days. That was just four days before a scathing audit by the VA revealed that new patients in Honolulu actually had the worst wait times in the entire system, 145 days. Gabbard says there should be zero tolerance for lies or misrepresentation in what she called this "urgent crisis."